Poland gets left behind

Blocking Europe’s climate agenda was a bad move for Poland.

European Voice

3/21/12, 10:58 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 10:58 PM CET

The Polish prime minister has often rejected a two-speed Europe. In impassioned speeches, Donald Tusk talks about the need to prevent European division, especially on issues such as the single currency and economic development.

But on 9 March, Tusk’s environment minister, Marcin Korolec, angered his European counterparts by once again stubbornly blocking Europe’s climate agenda (“Poland threatens to block low-carbon roadmap”, 8-14 March). Nobody was prepared to join him. Poland stood alone and pulled the brakes on Europe’s efforts to prevent the most devastating forms of climate change and to wean ourselves off fossil-fuel imports.

With this move, Tusk has transformed his nightmare into reality. Hours after the veto, Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action, signalled that Europe would move ahead without Poland.

Tusk can still change direction and rejoin a single-speed Europe. With an ageing set of power stations, Poland desperately needs European investment support for energy infrastructure. Other post-communist members of the EU are designing modern, greener policies. Romania saw wind power soar from 14 megawatts in 2009 to 982MW in 2011. In Latvia, 36% of consumed energy in 2010 was from renewable sources.

Unfortunately, Poland’s energy mix has barely changed in 20 years and Tusk’s government is ignoring the opportunities of clean energy. More than 90% of electricity in Poland comes from coal – and the government’s official energy

policy is to reduce, rather than increase, the tiny share of renewable electricity between 2020 and 2030.

The permitting process for wind farms is cumbersome; the treasury has gutted attempts to harvest vast energy-savings potential; and the government plans to build 14 coal plants that would entrench this outdated energy model for decades to come.

Poland cannot afford a two-speed Europe, yet unless Tusk carries out reform at home and stops blocking progress in the European Union, it will always lag behind.